The best ever!

I've searched them all. Zoho is tops by far! Not only do you have full CRM integration reducing sales time by 1000's of hours (really... it's as simple Lead->Convert->Quote. Clients then pay their quote in one click thanks to Zoho!) but the product as a stand alone is far superior. The layout, quotes, invoices, automation, reports... They've thought of everything. Since we switched my business has seen radical jumps in both staff productivity and conversion rates. As a small business owner (actually it's not small anymore!), time really is money - Zoho knows how to give you both. They have truly allowed my business to grow: The service we offer is a one time only purchase by most of our clients- so we need to get it right first time and shine above our competitors! Fresh Start Law Centre is now the leading criminal record removal firm in South Africa - Thank you Zoho! Ansar Sykes CEO, www.FreshStartLawCentre.co.za

Pros

Everything! Mainly the level of customization available and CRM integration.

Cons

Improvement: Allow for www.payfast.co.za credit card payment integration for the South African market. In the interim, we are using unique URL's in the quotes/invoices for one click payment. But having full Zoho payment integration is better.

Over 50, not an accountant & never aspired to own a small business...

It's true, but when your calling is a clear one, you are obligated to follow! Our small care giving business has employees working exclusively at customer sites. The caregivers (most also over 50 yrs. old) input their time, mileage & expenses from their smart phones. Invoicing is generally done at my laptop but can be done from my phone. The invoicing can be personalized with valuable information for our clients such as upcoming holidays, rate changes, & thank yous for allowing us to earn their business. The reporting is simple to use as is the customer support. The customer support is very knowledgeable & easy to understand. We have never experienced a wait time either. We tried another accounting package our first year of business & found it too cumbersome & not user friendly for those of us with only basic accounting skills. Zoho was recommended by our professional accountant & business advisor. Zoho has greatly simplified our invoicing, reporting, & customer account related tasks, so that we can focus on senior care giving where our gifts are strong. Thanks, Zoho! -R. Ford, Owner of The Merry Marthas, LLC

Pros

- Phone based app & laptop s-ware are EZ to use.

Cons

Don't quite understand how to customize an invoice, save it & use it for monthly billing.

Sometimes, I have to play around with the invoice to get all of the detail needed to print. For example, it is not readily apparent how to display the dates for which each expense is incurred on the invoice.

Not having a copy of our company's data stored on our system makes me nervous so we keep paper back ups. Surely there is a better contingency plan of which we could take advantage.

Zoho Books: Accounting software for Sma and Medium Enterprise

Overall good software for small and medi enterprise with good features.

Pros

Zoho books is cloud based accounting software with many impressive features. Below are the pros of ZOHO Books

1. Zoho comes with many inbuilt accounting software features like inventory management, Payroll processing, Sales and Purchase booking etc.
2. Can be integrated with your online shoping websites like shopify, woocommerce and many more.
3. Automatc recurring expense booking like depreciation, monthly rent etc.
4. Zoho has rebust cloud technology and provides 99.99% downtime, also provides top security for your data protection.
5. In cloud based software there is negligible risk of data loss as service provider regularly takes backup of data.
6. Cloud based software are are far better than DOS based or windows based softwares.
7. Zoho books is available with reasonable price compared to other cloud based software.

Cons

1.As compared to Quickbooks online many features are missing.
2.Disadvantage of cloud based software is it becomes difficult to shift to windows based software as data can not be transferred easily.
3. Zoho attracts consumer by quoting very less fees for 1st year but from next years there is steep increase in charges.

Great solution.. but not for everyone

I used Zoho Books for my own practice for 3 years+for a few of my Clients. It's fast and reliable, and developers are improving it very regularly - adding new features constantly. I would highly recommend using it especially in the businesses that would also use other software from Zoho-like e-mail or CRM-they're well priced and are extremely cost-effective.

Pros

Zoho Books is lightning fast-miles ahead of the competition if it comes to the speed of the software. The actual user experience is very close to the desktop software.
Another good feature is its customizability - you'll find a plethora of options with Zoho, obviously designed with advanced reporting tools that come with Zoho Suite in mind.
What's important - importing and exporting stuff from Zoho is also very simple - that comes in handy if you want to switch to another software from Zoho, you'll be able to do it-most counterparts allow you to migrate data only partly.
Importing journals-extremely important feature-works flawlessly.

Cons

No integrated payroll functionality - small flaw, as you can easily import journals from the software of your choice.
Average bank reconciliation - filtering records is difficult, custom sorting as well.
No itegrated CIS solution.
No reporting directly to HMRC.

Very good, but lacks some of the basics

Switched from Quickbooks to ZohoBooks. Overall, ZohoBooks is very good. The site is always up and running very quickly. Tech support is excellent in both speed and quality. The software is actually fun to use. However, it does lack some of the basic functions that seem should have been in there from the beginning such as ability to print deposit slips, and there's no running total on the side of accounts so when you're looking for a mistake, it makes it very difficult to find. One feature that our business desperately is ability to pre-send invoices to people on a recurring basis before their due date. Quickbooks has had this ability back since the days of DOS (20 years ago). We're limping around right now trying to work without these basic needs in hopes that they will soon come. On the otherhand, Zoho does keep adding new features on a consistent basis. Sometimes just simple design changes but at least you get the feeling they are still working on it. -Highly recommended, however proceed with caution because there are some very basic things missing and they don't seem to be in a hurry to resolve this. It's almost the year 2017 and I'm adding up deposits by calculator and filling in deposit slips by pen. Shouldn't be ;-\

Pros

Excellent/fast support. Interface can be fun to use and is quick to respond.
Development seems to be ongoing.

Cons

Lacks basic functions like deposit slip printing (and automatically transferring those funds to bank from Undeposited Funds), ability to pre-send recurring invoices, inability to set simple defaults such as default account to accept payment to (always need to manually select Undeposited Funds when accepting checks) and no running total in account ledgers such as Undeposited Funds (how are you supposed to find and fix errors, mistakes?)

Go-To Invoicing Software Everyone Should Have

We are a company that's 10 years in the industry. We cater a thousand orders a month and getting an invoicing software that's basically gonna do the job is essential. We've been to a couple of invoicing software but none of those were good enough to bring with us on our road to success. The last software we've got literally ruined our business for a couple of months that we decided to give it up until I found Zoho books. I have heard much of Zoho from my virtual assistant colleagues and their employers have been using them for a while. I decided to sign up for a free trial and loved it! It does almost everything that we need in an invoicing software. Its payment reminders allow us to optimize our collections every month and it keeps going. Its ability to track overdue invoices, customizing templates, and custom fields were a tremendous help in making sure our documents are as accurate as we need them to be. Customer service is also a big help. Someone always answers the phone on their end, emails are being replied in a timely manner and call backs are done in less than 24 hrs. All these for $24 a month which is kind of awesome. We are probably going to stick with Zoho for a while and we are just even starting. Reports are also pretty detailed and is a big help for us to track our progress. On the other side of the coin, I hope they also have an API integrated in their system. Makes it easier for our vendors. I recommend it to small to large scale business who are looking to integrate their accounting and invoicing (probably their inventory as well with Zoho Inventory on the way). Zoho Books is for you.

Pros

Pros:

1. Reports. We needed to track our progress down every week and what better way it is than to view our reports. Zoho allows you to get a report for Sales Person, Items and Customer. It's detailed report on overdue invoices are great for us to pound the ones that need to pay.

2. Payment Reminders. Our invoices are always set in an open account. Therefore, we need an automated system to remind our customers about their due invoices. Works great for our collection!

3. Customer Service. They are always good at getting back to you. When no one is available to answer your call, tehy are going to call you back in less than 24 hrs. Their email support is also pretty quick they wont leave you hanging.

Cons

Zoho is good about getting a constructive suggestion done.

However, I wish they have an API integration with the system. Also with the Zoho Inventory along hte way, Im pretty sure they will be a perfect go-to software for our company.

If you have Zoho CRM This product is a must

Pros

This product Hooks up easily to Zoho CRM. The product works almost fluidly with the CRM. it makes it easy to see each client payment and how much we have received each month. The information the books hold really helps for some financial reports. The Reports do make my life easier kindof. Books make it easy to bill clients and it keeps all the information in one place.

Cons

The Reports as mention in my pros are missing some really good information that is already there in the system. They want me to pay for Zoho reports, but to my understanding Zoho reports, I would still need to go in and set it up. In our business every month we have to pay out our salespeople. fist I'm not able to split commissions easily or add multiple salespeople to an invoice. second, if I look up sales by salesperson by month it gives me all invoices created in the month, not all invoice paid. We sell expensive web projects and could take months to close. so it is unhelpful for me to see monthly sales report because it is not correct. they also have a "payments received" a report that comes in Zoho books. This report gives me monthly sales but does not add the sales person to the report. So I build a report that takes 30 min to an hour top. I have asked them to fix this and they told me to get Zoho reports

All in One Accounting Solution for SME businesses

Pros

A true CRM tool for sales people with the tools the ability to give accountants information needed. You can provide invoicing and estimates for clients as well as get an overview of sales for the year, the month and other important information. We have been using Zoho for over 5 years and almost swear by it, especially in our line of business with integration with payment options, we can accept multiple payment options from clients without changing our workflow. Whether used on its own or used with the other suite of Zoho apps, Zoho Books is definitely a recommended tool for anyone starting out and looking for an affordable accounting/CRM solution.

Cons

Only administrators can adjust invoices once they have been sent which limits functionality for larger sales teams.
Cancelling an estimate or invoice even when in draft mode is not as straightforward as when you create one.
Mobile apps for Zoho Books is not as easy to use as the web app, if you are running a business, it is good for viewing sales at a glance but it is not ideal for CRM on the go.
There is a slight learning curve to use Zoho Books for accounts especially if you are coming from another accounting suite.

Overall Zoho Books is easy to use and works very well for a small to medium business.

Pros

You can automate much of your purchasing and invoicing 'paperwork' process which is wasted time you can spend actually working on your business. It integrates easily with other Zoho products, QuickBooks and Google if you need it to.

Cons

While it is very easy to integrate with other zoho products like Zoho Expense it can sometimes be hard to understand how that integration is meant to work. Some best practice documentation like using Zoho Books and Zoho Expense would be great. For instance it took me a while to figure out that I needed to make sure I had chart of account line items in both. I assumed they would sync but they didn't. I had to go to expense and create the same custom line item I did in books. Not a big deal but it would have been helpful to know that I needed to do that. Customer Support can be very inconsistent. I've had very good experience with the chat support resolving my problems immediately. However, the ticket system and email can some times take days to respond. In particular, you don't have access to your support ticket so you don't know that it has been received or looked at, nor can you update it with any additional information.

I have been using Zoho for years

When I first started my photography business I needed an invoicing program and I stumbled upon Zoho in my search. It had everything I wanted and was free. Here I am 6 years later still using it. Back then I only needed Zoho Invoice, but through the years I needed more organization than the invoicing program offers so I upgraded to Zoho Books. At that time I didn't realize that it wasn't truly it an upgrade, but rather a switch from one to the other. I was being double charged. It was a bit challenging contacting Zoho support (in 2013), but once I did they were happy to fix the problem and refund my duplicate payments for the two months prior. Setting up Zoho Books was a bit challenging and my only true complaint about Zoho is that the support system is very much lacking. I struggled to reach Zoho Support. When I finally did they were helpful, but it is a challenge to actually ever reach anyone. Other than that Zoho is AMAZING. I have referred MANY friends to this program through the years.

Pros

Ease of use

Cons

Customer Support and the lack of detail in payments received. My bookkeeper struggles to reconcile my PayPal payments because the fees aren't identified.

Easy software to use

I have a wounder full experience i zoho books . ts very easy to handle and more user friendly accounting software. Its easy to export the data excel sheet and pdf format. The facility of dashboard module is extremely different from other software. There is 24 hours customer support. There is tension free for security in data backup.

Pros

1. This software is very easy to handling my daily accounts job. We are doing an advertising agency and our main task is to handle the data in different project wise. Zoho books supports to handle a multiple projects at a time and easy to calculate cost of sale of each project. Its very helpful to present the overall view of each project to top level management and our clients. The Time tracking module in Zoho books shows each project profitability. Its very easy to take statement of account of each client on the basis of user demand.

2. In Zoho books, dashboard gives a wounder full experience for both Accountant and Management.It shows a bird eye view of finanacial position at a particular time period

3. Comparing from other software Zoho books give an accurate details of customer an vendors

4. Its very easy to create chart of accounts. and we get full details of account transactions of each account through (show transaction) option

5. The report module give to user a very wide details

Cons

1. Zoho books provide a least support to function key and short cut key. its time lapsing for user while using mouse

2. Its difficult to handle staff advance payment and there reimbursement

Solid, usable software with great support

After trying about six other accounting packages for my email marketing agency, I went with Zoho Books. It was the only one that handled multiple currencies seamlessly without requiring the very top/most expensive account level. While there are some things I wish it would do differently, it's by far the best of all the different accounting solutions I have tried. In addition, their support is fast and very, very good... every time I have a question or a problem, they either resolve it or inform me of a workaround (and log a feature request on my behalf) in a minimum of time and without any hassle. The other thing I like about Zoho Books is that their feature set is always expanding - you really do need to read the notes when they announce an update, as often I've found they've added something that makes my life easier that I wouldn't have found on my own.

Pros

Customer support is excellent. Multiple currency features is good.

Cons

Some of the multiple currencies stuff - especially to do with bank accounts and payment methods - is a little clunky.

A good Option for Small businesses.

Pros

This is quite a good option for keeping records. This software has excellent support to its users and gets updates on a regular basis that is they continue to add new features. In order to keep a view on the progress you can view automatically generated reports in a graphical representation which is very easy to understand. They will also give you payment reminders of invoices so that you won’t miss any post-dated activity.

Cons

I don’t even get the point that even I can modify the invoices in this software or not, if not then zoho should add this option and if yes than they should make it easy to understand by any user. They should also add the option of copy to store company’s data in the system because this option is not available we have to keep paper records instead. They should make it a cloud based software because when you change the system you should face the difficulty of transferring data.

A little learning curve, but very user friendly!

Pros

I'll preface by saying I came from the ancient times of Excel bookkeeping to Zoho. The Books app making invoicing, reconciling, collections, and all of the A/R tasks a breeze. Initially I had to do some exploring, get templates set up for all of our items, and test out the features I needed to use. Whenever I found an issue I couldn't resolve, our account rep was easy to contact and ever helpful. The ease of invoicing is my most favorite. I can create a single invoice or make it recurring. The invoice cloning feature is great so I don't have to input the same info over & over.

Cons

The one fatal flaw of Books, for me, was that importing my contacts from an Excel spreadsheet was a nightmare. My files were set up in a pretty standard format - name, company, title, etc., but Books just didn't translate to something so simple. I was incredibly disappointed in this as I can easily import to other software in no time. Importing took me hours and I still had to go in & make corrections. If not for that, I'd say this software is A++!

Very easy to setup and use. Zoho allow interactions with non zoho products

Easy upload of invoices and expenses, tracking my tax transactions and easy maintaining of accounting books

Pros

Recurring Bills
Mass uploading of transactions
cloud based
transactional approval
Tax compliant
Live bank updates
Price list feature
comprehensive details for contacts
Reminders

Cons

Reconciliation of previous transactions: when there is a mistake in of the previous months reconciliation history, all other reconciliations has to be deleted till the date you want to make the change.
Does not support retail with multi-location. It means each location will have to be setup up as a separate company. There should be a location or class feature on each transaction and same should be reflected on the reports.

Freedom at Last !!!!

I run and advertising agency in Nairobi Kenya. I have 3 staff in the office. Before I discovered Zoho, I used paper quotations and invoices. I only had my quotes in my head. I was the only one who knew what to charge and how much to charge. A friend introduced me to the Zoho and I finally enjoy the freedom it offers. I rarely do the quotations myself, converting quotes to invoices and invoices to receipts is just amazing. I am able to create quotations from my phone as I move around when away from the office. Our accountant also is able to view our transactions and advice us. We have even reduced the charges he pays us as most of the information is done by zoho.

Pros

- Its Up to date with the new developments
- Its applicable to us in other countries
- Its simple to use
- It takes safe as you need passwords to access
- Its has an interesting User Interface
- The Staff is friendly and quite helpful

-

Cons

- Some times it take long to work on its magic

Zoho Books, best move we ever did

As our agency grew we realised that Freshbooks was not cutting it. We needed a solution that gave us a better overview of our accounting and billing. The updates and new features from Zoho Books seem like the roll out on a daily basis, always adding value and ease of use. Customer support is on point, clear communication and always on hand to make sure you are using their product correctly. We have now integrated with Zoho CRM and Projects for a full 360 of our agency processes and needs.

Pros

Simple, clean and clear UI. Nothing has come close. Onboarding our accountants was simple.

Cons

Very minimal, as we are growing we are finding that we need a few features our accountants require, but this is something they can do manually on ther end for now.

It's easy to use but that's as far as it goes

The overall experience with Zoho Books has been disappointing. We were told that they were capable of so much more than what they seem to be able to deliver on. There's no real good workflow capabilities and no real way to automate processes that the user imports over and over again. If you're just starting out and don't have many sales (especially online sales) or a big budget, this is great accounting software for the value. The fact that the software developers are unable to transfer books from their own platform to an upgraded version or new version of it makes it completely incompatible with any business that is hoping to scale or merge with another company unless you have a bunch of extra staff or hours on your hands as you will be importing every transaction one by one manually.

Pros

It's easy to use if you're doing simple bookkeeping

Cons

This software is not made for those wanting to automate as much of the workflow as possible. It is also not for businesses hoping to scale with the software. The software link to the bank account and credit card frequently breaks leaving the user to have to sync manually. I have contacted customer service regarding this issue but there does not seem to be a solution.
If you're looking to upgrade from a beta or lower version of books to a newer version, Zoho is not capable of transferring your old books to a new account so the user is left having to manually important each entry one by one which is ridiculous and tedious. I cannot understand why the software developer is unable to do this simple task when they were able to do it when transferring the books from Xero or QuickBooks.
I’m glad others are having such success with the software but from my standpoint as an accountant I just do not see the value of the software for any company looking to scale in a digital world of eCommerce and automation, especially if the company is utilizing Amazon’s platform. The workaround I have had to implement to balance the account receivables and payables from those sales instead of having a successful either add-on or API like those of QuickBooks and Xero has also resulted in extra work which could all be automated if only the software had the capability.

Satisfactory Financial System

Pros

I like that the system is so easy to prepare for use. It allows a lot of upload options - expenses, time sheet, sales, etc. You don't need training to understand how to use it if you have used another financial system in the past. Everything is easy to grasp and master - I have one bookkeeper who had ZERO training, but got everything right quickly. I also like the app that comes with it. It's not heavy on data or the phone memory. It comes with fancy picture taking tools that will allow you to keep a soft copy of your documents. The search function is also easy and quick. If you are not a highly complex company, this is a good starting database. Even up to medium complexity, I think it'll still work.

Cons

When I got Zoho Books for the company that I am working for at the moment, it didn't have the ability to report by project. I needed to create reporting tags and project at the same time, which is a real bummer. Recently, they made an upgrade that you are already able to do so on a project level. Reports are not customizable, and it's not really that easy to use. I needed to download reports from one place to another to come up with an accurate report. Sometimes, reports contradict one another. Been wrestling with the reporting part for a few months now.

Decent cloud based Bookkeeping software

Easy cloud-based bookkeeping software that integrates well with other Zoho Apps

Pros

This is a great cloud-based Booking software that integrates well with other Zoho apps, such as CRM. This allows our business to seamlessly transition between the two programs. You can sync information instantly, which helps when you're in the service industry. You can customize up until a certain point which is nice. They also allow bank account synchronization, as well as the creation of custom templates.

Cons

Sometimes the navigation can get confusing, and the Reports aspect should be more customizable. We have also found difficulty in matching purchase orders with the corresponding bank account records, s well as making then auto match and appear correctly for accounting reports.